It makes no sense to smuggle synthetic drugs such as crystal meth across a international border, which is always heavily guarded, let alone several borders. The main point of synthetic drugs is precisely to avoid the risks involved in smuggling drugs across borders by synthesizing them from easily obtained precursor chemicals inside the market country.
It makes no sense for Holmes not to take Halcon's phone call. He could easily sidestep any demands for progress reports, but any new information Halcon might have could literally mean life or death for Holmes or his loved ones.
It makes no sense for China to have foreign outsiders mine valuable mineral deposits on their own territory, especially not American corporations. China has easily been able to exploit such deposits all by itself for decades and is in fact mining rare earth minerals in many foreign countries as well.